And Then It All Falls Down
by LirpaTebroc
Summary: If you can't focus, you can't analyze the situation. If you can't analyze the situation, you can't make well informed decisions. If you can't make well informed decisions, you die. It's as simple as that. Follows Canon. Onesided SasuNaru


Story Rating: T for the non-descript thoughts of a hormonal teenager.

Main Pairing: Onesided SasukexNaruto

Canon: This story takes place when team 7 are will in training with Kakashi and is actually meant to fit in with the storyline. Think of this story as a missing pieces.

Word Count: 3,164

* * *

Sasuke didn't know when he first realized it, but he liked to see Naruto flushed. And that's exactly what Naruto was like right now: he was red in the face and neck and places that Sasuke couldn't see right now.

Naruto scowled and dipped his knees into a fighting stance. "Sasuke you bastard, I'm going to get you!"

If only he wanted to get Sasuke _that _way then things would get interesting. Sasuke made sure he smirked and folded his arms because that would be exactly what would irritate Naruto the most. "Oh really? Then why don't you try."

Naruto lunged and Sasuke stepped to the side, pushing bits of chakra into his feet for an added boost. Using chakra was the tingle without the pleasure, though Sasuke wasn't missing the effects of that in any way whatsoever. Naruto's hair balanced straight in the wind, defying gravity like he defied logic. Like how Sasuke's unnatural fascination defied logic.

Naruto, an orange blur, made another run at Sasuke, aiming for a kick.

Sasuke blocked and pushed Naruto to the ground, and as per training he found himself straddling Naruto with his knees sinking in mud. Sasuke could feel the heat Naruto put off down there, and it was heat and sensitivity and Sasuke decided right then and there that he was no longer going to buy the cheap cotton underwear just because he didn't care. _Now _he cared.

Naruto bucked his hips upwards and Sasuke was jerked forwards; he was forced to bathe his arms in sludge to avoid a head on collision. That is the good thing about training-- if you train enough you don't need to think sometimes. This is a good thing when your higher cranial nerves are preoccupied by useless sensory details.

Sasuke then found himself straddled by Naruto, and the status of his situation hadn't changed at all. It sucked, at that was all there was to it. Sasuke could now smell Naruto's sweat because they had been going at it long enough, and it wasn't a pungent reek like some other guys' were. It was merely salty, and he would probably taste like that too.

"Stop! Stop." Kakashi had appeared, and Naruto's punch stopped halfway to Sasuke's face. His right eye was arched into a smile, and Sasuke hoped that Kakashi wouldn't notice that Sasuke was a little too happy. "I think that'll be all for today. Later." Kakashi poofed out of existence, and Naruto was still on Sasuke. Kakashi must have noticed: he was a Jonin.

Naruto stood up and stretched his arms up to the sky. "That was a good spar, ne Sasuke? Wasn't that an awesome flip I pulled back there? I'm so awesome!"

Sasuke's problem tethered against his cotton boxers, and Sasuke hid his facial expression by wiping his face with the inside of his mud laden white sleeve. He didn't know if he could stand up right now. "Idiot. If you hadn't been so obvious with your kick then you wouldn't have been in that position in the first place."

Naruto walked up to where Sasuke was sitting and bent over a bit with his arms behind his back. "So? You are just mad that when we stopped I was on top."

Ironically, Naruto was right, in a round about way… "No. Why would I be mad about that? It's not like a winner of the match was declared." Mud squelched against Sasuke's jacket as he stood up. Sasuke cringed when he examined the slather of mud all over him. "Anyways, I'm leaving." Sasuke quickly turned away from Naruto and began his journey back to his apartment. From there he was going to have a little… personal time.

Naruto ran up next to Sasuke, and when Sasuke wasn't looking Naruto had unbuttoned his jacket. Today was turning out to be a bad day for Sasuke's imagination. He didn't need to mull over this any more then he already did; Sasuke needed to keep his mind focused on Itachi otherwise he would never complete his goals. "Jeesh Sasuke, you don't have to be such a jerk. What's got you anyways? You've been acting weird all day."

Try all week. That's when the urges started. And Sasuke didn't even know why they started, making the situation even more difficult. Sasuke had just woken up one morning to a picture of blonde hair in the back of his mind and a urging feeling that he didn't want to try to lay on his stomach. "I have not been acting weird. Maybe it's you that needs to stop jumping to conclusions."

"Hrmf!" Naruto crossed his arms together and hunched his shoulders down with a scowl. He then peeked out of one eye at Sasuke as he continued to stomp. His eyes were very blue. "No! I know you've been acting weird. I know it. And you can't tell me otherwise. Bastard."

Sasuke sighed and focused his attention on the other side of the road away from Naruto. Anywhere but Naruto.

Naruto sighed, and Sasuke immediately had a flashback to when Naruto was laying sprawled across Sasuke after a nice time. It wasn't a flashback, it was the end of a dream Sasuke had had. "You are just an ***hole Sasuke. Jeesh! You should relax sometimes and enjoy the day."

He had been enjoying it a little too much, thank-you very much. If he were enjoying it any more he would still be crippled on the ground. Sasuke hated it when he couldn't focus, and Naruto was the epitome of why he couldn't focus at all. If you can't focus, you can't analyze the situation, and then you can't make well informed decisions.

Sasuke's dad had been a taller man with wide shoulders, though the enormity of him could be attributed to the fact that Sasuke was so small at the time. That day his dad had been wearing that dark blue yukata with the black belt, and when he had leaned down to look Sasuke in the eyes his robes became a swathe of surrounding blue, like the midnight sky. "Sasuke, you need to listen to me. This is important."

Sasuke couldn't take his eyes from his dad even if he wanted to.

"I know that I might not be around very often, or as often as you would like." Sasuke's dad looked over to the side and sighed. He then placed his enormous tanned, calloused hands on Sasuke's shoulders and held them tight. Sasuke's dad returned eye contact, and while his yukata was blue his eyes were as black as his hair, making him just like the times just after the sun has dropped behind the horizon. "We are ninja. And as ninja, as live our lives in constant danger. We don't have extra time to muddle through life, so we need to make our minds just as sharp as our bodies. If we can't think straight in peace time, how are we supposed to think straight in the middle of a battle? If you can't focus, you can't analyze the situation. If you can't analyze the situation, you can't make well informed decisions. If you can't make well informed decisions, you die. It's as simple as that."

Sasuke was overwhelmed by the power of the statement directed at him and his breath caught in his throat. He was fairly sure he hadn't blinked either.

Sasuke's dad pulled Sasuke a bit closer, forcing him to trip over his feet a bit. "Keep your focus and you'll live. Take a look at Itachi-- he knows how to use his brain, perhaps even a bit better then the rest of us. He'll live because of that. You need to be like him: use your brain to survive. Use your brain now so you'll survive later on." Sasuke's dad's head dipped forward so his eyes were inches from Sasuke's. "You got me?"

Sasuke nodded, keeping his eye contact.

Sasuke's dad didn't move. "Promise me."

"I promise."

"You promise what?"

"I promise that I will always make sure that I can focus so I can make the best decisions. Because of this, I'll survive."

The giant man stood up so that the black part of the night was now truly part of the sky, completely out of Sasuke's reach. He could only look touch the bottom blue curtain of cloth and hope not to incur wrath. "Good boy."

That was the one of the few momentos Sasuke had of his father; his father preferred Itachi.

Sasuke looked over at Naruto how had his hands behind his head as he whistled some tune. He wouldn't, couldn't, let Naruto effect his judgement. Sasuke tipped his hand to the side. "Later." He separated paths from Naruto and began the trek to his apartment, forcing the separation between them. It was for the best-- he couldn't let his inclinations take a hold of him. They would be the death of him.

Sasuke liked to keep his apartment messy. Not dirty, because that would be counterproductive to both his health and his goals, but nicely messy. He always made sure that a couple books were laid out on the coffee table in the livingroom and that his jacket was thrown over the couch instead of in a closet. It made the apartment look more lived in, and it reminded him of the way his Aunt Maruko's house used to be. It made him feel like in some ways his Mom would walk in any day and berate him for allowing himself to live in such disarray: it was a nice fantasy. It reminded him of why he was alive everyday and who he had to kill.

There were two green couches that Sasuke had salvaged from the Uchiha compound entrapping the coffee table, and Sasuke sat in the middle of the couch facing the window. He liked to see the sun when he was inside because it always left a pleasant tingle on his face that he couldn't seem to forget.

Sasuke grabbed one of the books from the edge of the coffee table and flipped it open to a middle page. It looked like this section was discussing the effects of chakra on the body, and what trouble deviating amounts could cause. It said that if people suffered anything close to chakra exhaustion too often, it would decrease their lifespan. If that were the case, then what would happen to Naruto? He always trained himself hard, and Sasuke was always surprised that he had yet to end up in the hospital for serious chakra problems.

And he shouldn't be thinking of Naruto. That should be the last thing he should be doing right now.

There was a sound of metal being dragged against felt from the kitchen just on the other side of the wall.

Sasuke found his hand on his shuriken, and he knew the fact that he didn't have to think about that action was a good thing. It meant his training was beginning to pay off. Sasuke continued to keep his face on the book while eyeing the kitchen out of the corner of his eye.

There were three resounding footsteps of boots clanking against tile before silver hair peaked around the corner. Kakashi raised his hand to his forehead and pushed two fingers into the air. "Yo."

Sasuke slowly loosened his grip on the shuriken; sometimes it didn't hurt to be too careful. You never know when someone you think you know will turn on you. "What are you doing here?"

Kakashi was by the couch and leaned forward with his hands on his hips. "So the teacher needs an excuse to visit his cute students?"

Sasuke turned his eyes back to the book-- sometimes it was better to half ignore people when they felt like doing things like this. It usually gave people an indication that unless it was important he wanted nothing to do with what they were doing.

Kakashi sighed. "Oh well, I guess you don't want my advice on what to do about Naruto then." Kakashi turned around and began walking towards the door.

If that's the way he wanted to play it, then so be it. Sasuke needed this information. "What about Naruto." It turns out that he had noticed that Sasuke was a little too happy after his fight with Naruto-- he was a Jounin, afterall. At least he was offering help instead of condescension.

Kakashi leaned back a little and put his hand to his ear, and Sasuke once again had the urge to rip the stupid mask of his face. It made it harder to figure out what Kakshi was thinking. "Oh? So now my cute student is wanting my attention?"

Kakashi really needs to learn how to not play games, especially with other ninja, because that had a tendency to irritate them. Sasuke doubted that Kakashi would want such a significantly shortened lifespan. Or maybe he did-- you could never tell with him.

Kakashi was silent, so he was waiting for an answer.

Sasuke shut the book and shifted on the green couch so that he was facing Kakashi. "Yes. Now answer my question."

"Now what's the magic word?" Kakashi was having way too much fun with this.

Sasuke didn't allow his hands to ball into fists, because no matter how much decking Kakshi in the face sounded like a good idea right now, it really wasn't. Logic's orders. "Please."

"Good boy."

Sasuke really didn't want to hear this from him. Actually, he didn't want to hear about any of this from him. This was going to turn out to be an awkward conversation.

Kakashi situated himself in the couch across from Sasuke, leaning backwards in his black stretchy suit. Kakashi was black and silver, like wind. Maybe that would explain how he was only truly predicable in his unpredictability. "So, you like Naruto?"

Sasuke leaned on his clasped hands-- he mud from earlier was pretty much dry, and he didn't think it was prudent to do anything about that situation. "You clearly saw what happened this morning. I wouldn't call that like."

Kakashi seemed to get serious. Finally. "Lust, then. You do realize the implications of this."

Probably more then Kakashi thought but less then there really was. "Yes."

"Then what are you going to do about it?" Kakashi's eyes bored into Sasuke's head. It reminded Sasuke of the way Itachi had looked at Sasuke before he cast the Magekyu Sharingan; Sasuke tensed up.

Sasuke found a piece of mud attatched to the couch to examine. "I intend to ignore it. I refuse to let primal instincts get in the way of my goal." It's interesting how the mud starts off dark, and as it dries it crackles and becomes frail before returning to dust.

Out of the corner of his eye Sasuke saw Kakashi nod. "That is the best course of action. I suggest you stay on that route." Kakashi stood up. "Well then, I will be leaving. Ja!" Kakashi really shouldn't use that Jutsu in the house-- Sasuke can smell the smoke for days later.

Breath exhaled from Sasuke's throat as he leaned on his knees. Really, this was a horrible situation. Hormones are something that just shouldn't exist. Maybe that line of reasoning was why he was in this situation in the first place-- after all, his first kiss had been given to Naruto. Of course his body would react in such a mannor when he denied it what could be called primal functions. However, Sasuke was better then that and he refused to allow himself to be trapped by such things. He had to defeat Itachi and restore his clan: that was what was of utmost importance at the moment. He can't wait time mooning over his teammates.

Itachi had been able to overcome these urges, so Sasuke should be able to as well. He had given into them at first, but Itachi did overcome them in the end. It was terrifying to Sasuke when Itachi had first begun to date. Sasuke had wanted to practice shuriken throwing with Itachi in the forest out back, and Sasuke knew he was free because he had just gotten back from a mission. Sasuke had ran up to Itachi proclaiming "practice shuriken throwing with me!"

Itachi, who was sitting on a wooden section just outside the house, barely looked up. Sasuke was about to tackle Itachi to the ground when two fingers shot out into his forehead.

Sasuke fell backwards. "Itachi!"

Itachi looked over at Sasuke and gave him a small smile. "Hello."

Sasuke scooted over so he was sitting crosslegged next to Itachi. "Will you?"

Itachi shook his head. "Not today, I am going to be busy tonight."

"With what? I know that you just got back from your mission."

Itachi put his hands behind his back and looked up at the sky, and somehow the bags under his eyes weren't the only thing making Itachi look old. "I am meeting up with someone."

Sasuke brought his knees up and hugged them-- he always felt very small when things like this happened. "Is it for village business?"

Itachi kept on gazing at the sky, and the light breeze ruffled his ponytail. "Not quite."

Sasuke looked up and dropped his knees. "Oh, then what are you meeting for? Training?" Sasuke leaned forward and pushed at Itachi's shoulder. "You can train with me!"

A light pink dusted Itachi's cheeks, and Sasuke was sure he was avoiding eye contact. "Not quite. Let's say it's… personal business."

Sasuke squinted his eyes and pushed his head to the side. "Personal… Business? What personal business doesn't involve the village or training?"

Yep, Itachi was avoiding direct eye contact with Sasuke. "I am going on a date."

Sasuke remembered that the wood that night had a slight chill to it, making the redness Itachi was experiencing even more confusing. "A date? What's that?"

"A date is when you meet up which someone to get to know them better to see if you want to pursue a relationship. Mother and Father didn't do this because he is the head of the clan and it was an arranged marriage, but most other people do."

Sasuke tackled Itachi's side. "I don't want you to get married and leave! Don't go!"

Itachi's eyes were wide and finally looking at Sasuke again, and then softened as Itachi sighed and pulled Sasuke into a hug. "Don't worry. I won't leave you."

Itachi didn't end up going on that date after all, and the subject wasn't brought up again.

Sasuke wouldn't let Itachi's self-control surpass his: if Itachi could survive then so could Sasuke. Sasuke opened his eyes he hadn't realized he had closed and pulled the book about chakra into his lap. He would have the entire thing read by tonight, because Itachi probably had everything in the book memorized by Sasuke's age. Sasuke had a lot of catching up to do.


End file.
